Business
Asquith Nurseries was a leading owner and operator of children’s nurseries and pre-schools.
The company was highly regarded and benefited from a wide graphical spread of 65 sites offering 3,000 nursery places and high quality operations underpinned by a strong freehold asset base.
Market
Lyceum Capital was one of the first investors to identify the long-term growth potential of the UK private education sector.
Our review of the market showed that the private day nursery sector was an attractive subsector with long-term underlying growth prospects driven by changing demographics and trends.
Strategy
Our strategy was to build the best private day nursery group in the UK through:
- Investing in company infrastructure to create a scalable business
- Investing in nursery sites to develop best-in-class facilities
- Developing new sales channels (e.g. PFI partnerships)
- Accelerating growth through add-on acquisitions and new sites
Outcomes
We separated the nursery and schools business, establishing independent management for both.
Asquith Nurseries invested more than £8m in its sites and infrastructure, completed five add-on acquisitions, increased the number of nursery sites to 115 and doubled the number of children in its care.
Profits increased from £3.8m in 2001 to £8.1m at the time we sold the business to Dawnay, Day and Swordfish Investments in June 2007.